MY PREDICTION—OBAMA WINS REELECTION TOMORROW WITH 320 ELECTORAL VOTES

I hear reporters on NBC, CBS, BBC World News, Al Jazeera, and France 24 talk about the election as a virtual tie.

I disagree.  President Barach Obama is going to win almost every state.  Mitt Romney is going down to defeat.

American presidential elections are decided on the number of electoral votes, with 270 needed to win.  Each state is assigned so many electoral votes, based on population.  Illinois, for example, has 20 electoral votes.  If Obama wins in Illinois, he garners all of the state's 20 electoral votes.

From what I see in state-by-state polls, I predict Pres. Barach Obama will win with 320 electoral votes.

COMPARE THE NEWS HOUR WITH JIM LEHRER TO OTHER SERIOUS NEWS BROADCASTS

There are two TV networks that raise my ire. One is CNBC with its stable of conservative Republicans adamantly opposed to anything Obama and the Democrats do. And the second is PBS, specifically The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, about which I want to talk in this post.

PBS offers The NewsHour as if it is fulfilling its obligation to present world and national news on weekday evenings. But as far as news content, The NewsHour is a canard. Compare it with BBC World News or with France 24 or even with RT News from Russia. It is then that the shallowness of The News Hour becomes transparent. Why? Because The NewsHour presents not more than five minutes hard news, the rest being low-cost interviews with "newsmakers" or "experts" from PBS studios in D.C.

Then consider the cast of characters on The NewsHour. Judy Woodruff, no doubt a nice person, is hopeless as an interviewer. CNN certainly lost nothing when she left. She'll agree with anything a guest says. Has she any opinion on anything? Is she prepared to challenge some of the outrageous things her interviewees say or claim? I argue she is not.

Then consider Margaret Warner. She asks good questions, but seems not to listen to the answers. A guest can say anything, Margaret Warner will simply go on to the next question.

How about Jim Lehrer? Like the other two, he is hopeless. Besides he comes across as a hay seed.

I submit: PBS should get rid of The NewsHour and start all over again. Look at the offerings of news on Al Jazeera, Euronews, France 24 or RT. PBS has a lot to learn, especially when it comes to representing solid national and international news.

PBS' THE NEWS HOUR DOES NOT GIVE THE NEWS

One of the reasons I am not a fan of The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer is because of how the program treats the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza.

For the last several nights Lehrer and The NewsHour gave zero mention of the conflict, except for cursory treatment in the news summary at the beginning of the program. And tonight The NewsHour extended a two-minute treatment obtained from ITN. At the end of the piece when the ITN reporter described the utter devastation of one particular village in Gaza where Israeli forces destroyed all the homes and buildings, Lehrer had no comment. On to something else. As if the story of utter devastation was a non-story.

This is why I argue for KUED-TV Channel 7 to provide serious international news programs like BBC World News. The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer just does not do the job.

BOMBINGS IN NORTHERN IRAQ REVENGE FOR STONING OF YOUNG WOMAN WANTING TO CONVERT TO ISLAM?

The multiple car bombings in Northern Iraq could continue to climb by the hundreds. The BBC reports that there are some 200 people unaccounted for.

Writes the BBC today:

"The governor of Tal Afar told the BBC the current toll of 250 dead and 350 injured was expected to rise sharply. Poor families in the Yazidi community hit by the bombings often crowd as many as 30 people in one home, he said. The bombing of two Yazidi villages near Mosul was one of the worst attacks in more than four years of war in Iraq. It already surpasses the killing of just over 200 people in car bombings and mortar fire in Baghdad's Shia stronghold of Sadr City last November . . ."

The U.S. military claims it was Qaeda-types who did the bombing. But the BBC World News TV last night showed a disturbing video of a Yazidi young woman recently being stoned to death by her family for wanting to marry a Sunni Muslim. Perhaps the bombing was revenge by Sunni Muslims against the dead girl's Yazidi family and clan.

This motive has not appeared anywhere else than on the BBC as far as I know. The video should be on You Tube but frankly I don't care to revisit it. Here's what the BBC writes today:

"Tensions between the Yazidi sect and local Muslims have grown since a Yazidi girl was reportedly stoned by her community in April for converting to Islam."

The BBC report today says "reportedly stoned," but the BBC World News, as indicated above, broadcast portions of the video showing the girl being stoned to death.

PBS: WHERE IS NEWSCAST ON SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS?

I want PBS to broadcast The NewsHour on Saturdays and Sundays. As it is, we have no news from PBS over the weekends. It is as if nothing happens in the world deserving of coverage over the weekend. We all know how ludicrous that supposition is. Yet, notwithstanding bombings in Iraq, earthquakes, tsunamis, important political developments, PBS offers us no newscasts or broadcasts.

We don't need Jim Lehrer to work seven days a week. A substitute will do. But we do need The NewsHour or similar program. If PBS refuses to consider weekend news broadcasts, let it substitute BBC World News several times a day on both Saturdays and Sundays.